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Wink of an Eye (episode)
The Enterprise is hijacked by hyperaccelerated, sterile aliens who want the crew for breeding stock. Summary Captain Kirk and a landing party respond to a distress call on Scalos, but the planet seems deserted. Kirk hears an insect buzzing, but no signs of life. Spock reports that the civilization was highly advanced, rating 7 on the industrial scale. He will have the abundance of literature which will be translated and processed. Redshirt Compton vanishes while taking a water sample, right before Dr. McCoy's eyes. Kirk and the landing party return to the Enterprise, where they begin to analyze the mystery. Sulu reports that he is having a malfunction on his console, and Chapel says that the medical supply cabinets have been opened. While being examined by McCoy, Kirk hears the insect noise again. Kirk and Spock discover a strange device hooked into environmental controls, but they cannot disconnect or destroy it. Kirk, Scott, and Spock consult the ship's computer, which concludes that an unknown presence is trying to gain control of the Enterprise. The computer recommends negotiation for terms, but Kirk refuses. He takes a cup of coffee from a passing yeoman; Kirk hears the buzzing noise again and sets down his coffee. We see some bubbling in his coffee. Kirk's perception slows, and the crew on the bridge move in slow motion. Kirk has become hyperaccelerated. The Queen of the Scalosians, Deela, has given Kirk an agent that accelerates him to the Scalosian time frame; a Scalosian experiences time much more quickly, so that they can no longer been seen. Kirk attempts to stun Deela with a phaser, but she easily steps out of the way of the beam. Deela is amused at Kirk's defiance; she says that "it always happens this way; they are very upset at first" but "then it wears off and they learn to like it." The scene momentarily cuts back to normal time; Kirk's disappearance is noticed by Uhura, Spock, and Sulu. Then, Kirk runs to Environmental Engineering where he encounters Compton, who has been accelerated and is guarding the way. He assures Kirk that he will come to accept the new arrangement. Kirk overpowers Compton, but Kirk is subdued in the control room by two male Scalosians. Deela fawns over the unconscious Kirk and hopes that she can keep him for a long time. Hopefully, she says, this species is strong enough to last. Kirk awakes, only to see Compton pass out from cell damage. He ages rapidly and dies, becoming another of the Starfleet casualties. Kirk exclaims, "He was so young." Kirk makes a recording of his report in a medical lab, while Spock, Chapel and McCoy stand by like statues, moving in the slower time frame. He states that the cause is hyperacelleration, and that the device in the environmental control will put the Enterprise into a deep freeze. Deela confirms his story, and tells the history of her race. Radiation poisoning transformed the population of Scalos, accelerating them out of the normal timeframe and making them sterile. Their only hope, Deela suggests, is to abduct members from other races in order to procreate. Unfortunately, in order to do this, they must hyperacellerate the other race, which usually causes them to die quickly. While Deela is distracted, Kirk slips his tape into the machine that Spock is using and flees to the transporter room. Deela tries to transport Kirk to the surface, but the transporter is inoperable. They retire to Kirk's quarters while the problem is investigated. Meanwhile, Spock leaves the medical lab when he realizes what the buzzing sound is. He replays the distress call and also the telemetry from the original away mission, then uses the ship's controls to speed up and slow down what he sees. By speeding up the distress call, he creates a buzzing sound like what they have been hearing. Back in the medical lab, McCoy discovers a tape with the same buzzing sound. He brings the tape to the bridge, where Spock slows down the tape and learns of the Scalosian plot. Having repaired the transporter, Rael, Deela's husband, tries to inform Deela but she is in Kirk's quarters and does not answer. He interrupts them as they are about to kiss and attacks Kirk. She subdues him with her weapon and chides him for being jealous. After Rael leaves, Kirk seems to have accepted his fate. McCoy, Chapel and Spock has synthesized an agent to counteract the hyper-aceleration, but do not know how they will administer it to Kirk. Spock takes the initiative and drinks the Scalosian water sample. Accelerated, he collects the antidote and goes off to find Kirk. The other Scalosians beam down to the surface, and Rael activates the refrigeration device. Kirk steals Deela's weapon and meets up with Spock; together they incapacitate Rael and destroy the device. Kirk confronts Deela and asks what they should do with her. She points out that life with her would not be unpleasant, but he states that he would rather stay alive. He sends Rael and Deela back to the surface. Spock gives the counter-agent to Kirk, but says that it has not been tested. Kirk says "Let's test it" and returns to normal time. Kirk appears in front of Scotty, who is pleased to see him. Spock remains in accelerated time in order to effect repairs efficiently to the ship. With the ship repaired, Uhura slips and activates the tape of Deela, and Kirk says goodbye. Log Entries *''Ship's log, stardate 5710.5. Lieutenant Commander Scott reporting. While exploring an outer quadrant of the galaxy, the Enterprise received distress calls from an apparently uninhabited, incredibly beautiful city on the planet of Scalos. Captain Kirk and a landing party have beamed down to investigate. '' *''Captain’s log, stardate 5710.9. Mr. Spock has remained in accelerated time so that he might affect repairs to the ship more rapidly. '' Memorable Quotes "And now, what about your problem, Captain? And your Vulcan friend?" "If you will devote yourself exclusively to the concerns of Scalos, madame, we shall be pleased to remain and take care of the ''Enterprise." : - '''Deela' and Spock, trading words "Who are you?" "Deela... the enemy." : - Kirk and Deela, first meeting on the Bridge "Compton! I was looking at him. I was looking ''right at him, and then... he just wasn't there!" : - '''McCoy', trying to explain Compton's disappearance "He was so young." : - Kirk, disconsolate after believing he's killed Compton Background Information * Story outline: , filmed middle through late September. * At the beginning of the episode, Scotty is shown on the bridge recording a log while other dialogue is played over this scene. This footage is lifted from The Empath, made obvious by the fact that Scotty's hair style is totally different in the rest of this episode! You can even hear the log recording from "The Empath", very faintly, in the background! Furthermore, Uhura is not sitting in her chair, but another woman. *Chekov is seen only in the beginning footage, which was recycled from "The Empath". * The Eminiar VII matte painting is recycled here for Scalos, a statue seen in Anan 7's quarters is similar to a statue seen in this episode. * The Environmental Engineering room is a hastily redressed briefing room. * Deela's weapon makes a sound identical to Klingon disruptors and the Ardana torture device in "The Cloud Minders." * Director Jud Taylor tilted the camera to indicate the journey into hyperacceleration. This was also a common technique on "Batman" whenever the camera visited the villain-of-the-week's lair. * In the episode trailer, when Compton is accelerated he merely disappears, rather than "flickering out" as he does in the final episode. * A 1966 episode of "The Wild, Wild West" was no doubt the inspiraton for this episode. In that episode, "The Night of the Burning Diamond", the villain hyperaccelerated himself with an elixir in order to steal valuable gems with impunity. The danger of hyperacceleration was that the excessive friction of "wink of an eye" movement could set the body on fire. Interestingly enough, the episode also featured 'Star Trek' communicator chirp noises to represent the sound of people talking as heard by those sped up by the elixir. Gene L. Coon was the producer for part of "The Wild, Wild West's" first season and came up with the story idea for this segment of TOS. * The producers managed to slip past the censors the scene clearly suggesting that Deela and Kirk have just had sex. The captain is sitting on the edge of the bed, tugging on his boot, while Deela is busy brushing her hair. * Kirk and Rael start fighting at the end of one act, and while the picture is fading out to commercial, the action onscreen doesn't freeze. In slow motion, you can see Rael raising his arm to strike Kirk and Kirk lifting a chair to defend himself. After the commercial, the action picks up right where it left off, with Deela quickly stunning Rael to make him drop his weapon. * In the first act, Sulu notes that various controls have been "frozen." Soon afterward, when Kirk sips his contaminated coffee, you can see behind him that the Bridge's turbolift doors are "stuck" open - the latest "victim" of the Scalosians' tampering. * After Kirk is hyperaccelerated and has met Deela on the Bridge, he storms off camera, presumably to use the "stuck" turbolift. What we hear, however, are his footfalls receding into the distance, as if he's not going to the turbolift after all. This suggests there's another way to get off the Bridge. Remastered Information * The remastered version of this episode premiered in syndication the weekend of . New shots of Scalos from space, as well as an enhanced matte painting of the surface were inserted into the episode, alongside more realistic phaser effects. This was the first remastered episode from third season to air and thus featured a "new" opening titles sequence. Image:TOS generic planet 4.jpg|The original Scalos Image:Scalos.jpg|...and remastered :The next remastered episode to air was "Where No Man Has Gone Before". DVD Media Information * VHS edition available through Amazon under ISBN 6300988643. * ''Star Trek: The Original Series, Volume 34 (original two episode single-disc release) * ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' - The Complete Third Season (disc 3 of the set) Links and References Main cast * William Shatner as Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Spock * DeForest Kelley as McCoy * James Doohan as Scott * George Takei as Sulu * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura * Majel Barrett as Nurse Chapel Guest Stars * Kathie Browne as Deela * Jason Evers as Rael * Erik Holland as Ekor * Geoffrey Binney as Compton Uncredited Co-Stars * William Blackburn as Hadley (uncredited) * Roger Holloway as Roger Lemli (uncredited) * Richard Geary as Security Guard (uncredited) * Eddie Hice as Male Scalosian (uncredited) * Unknown performers as Female Scalosian (uncredited) References distress call; hyperacceleration; Industrial Scale; radiation poisoning; Scalos; Scalosian; water. External Links * |next= |lastair= |nextair= |lastair_remastered= |nextair_remastered= }} Category:TOS episodes de:Was summt denn da? es:Wink of an Eye nl:Wink of an Eye